Another week, a new schedule.

My life here in Zambia is really pretty different than in Kenya. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm even in Africa at all, but then something unexpected will happen and I'll be reminded of my place. This week that thing was the decision for the boys whom I am supposed to be discipling to be let go from the program they're in right now. WHAT?

I don't know all of the history of stuff, but this week it was decided that their misbehavior has become too much, even obstinate and intentional. Therefore, the staff here (mostly Zambian) have decided that Chishala, Kellys, and Felix are all going to leave the Boy's Ranch and be on their own- in the next 2-3 days! 

Lots of factors I'm sure went into this decision, but I'm sure that a strong one was not wanting the younger boys to follow bad examples and receive bad influence. Last Friday was took in two new boys to the Ranch, Ernest (10) and Frank (11). They both look like they're about 5, in fact lots of the boys here look much younger than their actual age (a 19 year old who looks 12, an 18 year old who looks 13, 14 year old who looks 7). The day after they came, Saturday, two boys ran away from the Boy's ranch. Mana Mwape (19), and Chanda (12) just slipped out between the wire fencing in plain daylight. We're all confused about how they did it without being noticed because there were people well scattered through out our 4 acres. Either way, they left, and we mourned for Chanda especially. It seems that Mana has been to lots of centers for street children, and he does the same thing at every one: incite younger boys to run away with him. Thankfully only one went with him, although another (Kainda) would have gone had he not been called back for a conversation with one of our staff. I saw Chanda in town the next day and he refused to come back, but yesterday he said he was ready to come back. The staff seem unanimous that Mana fed him a bunch of lies and that he was manipulated into leaving. It blows my mind that a child would want to leave this place: they get  3 good meals a day, a warm bed to sleep in with a roof over their heads, friends who understand what they've been through, and adults who will be consistent and loving with them. 

The boys that I've talked with have said that they never went hungry, though. Often they actually had a place to rent and would sleep there at night (rent can be as low as $8 per month). They told me that they could earn as much as $20-$50 a day, and on the streets they could spend it howevver they wanted: burgers, steak, glue to sniff, cigarettes, weed, alcohol, prositutes, whatever they wanted. They couldn't buy love with it though, and I think that is the differece between this program and other gov't run/sponsored ones around. Apparently they all have terrible retention rates (most kids run away after 1 or 2 months), but here we've had the same kids for over  a year, and they're really different! They are loved, and that is becaus the people who work there know God and have been loved by Him. It's amazing to see it really work. 

So my relationships will change now, but my schedule wasn't really finalized anyway so it won't be that big of a disruption. I've finally got stuff all programmed out, though, and this week I'll get to really dig in! I'm especially excited to finish the story that I started at the orphanage yesterday. It's a tale illustrating the truth found in 2 Timothy 3:16 "All of scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness". I tell stories a lot more when I'm teaching in Africa, and it's so fun to make em up right there on the spot, analogiues too. My fav so far: Many men get married just so they can have sex. That's like someone buying a car so that they can have a radio. They'll get a radio, yeah, but there's a whole bunch of other stuff along with it. A car is a big responsibility, and you can do wonderful things with it, or cause incredible pain and suffering. 

Karen is still my favorite girl in the world. My goodness, I'm so blessed to be with her. 

Glad to start!

Well I'm at the beginning (or end) of a week here, depending on whose calendar you're looking at, and I feel a bit more rested and at peace now than I did a week ago. Main reason: I've mostly started the things I came here to do! 

I spent my first two weeks just trying to understand the schedules, circumstances, and environments that I'll be working in here. Now that's I've got my feet under me a bit more I've begun, and I'm enjoying it!

I did my first Bible study with the kids at the orphanage on Friday, and it was really fun! There were about 8 kids ages 10-12 and they were 1:15 later than I thought they'd be home (though probably not their fault, in fact it was mostly Miss Communication's fault) so they had to eat lunch while I was teaching, but they were paying attention and seemed to enjoy it. There were two teachers from the orphanage who stayed in the room while I did it and they helped and encouraged the kids to speak up and not be shy with me "You can't fear him" they'd say in their sweet Northern-Rhodesian accents. :-)

I've also led my second Bible study for unmarried men aged 14-30 at the local church, and it's cool. Today there was just one guy for the first five minutes, then we found Shad, one of Karen's students (16) and eventually two of the guys from the church band came along. We talked about how God made sex good, and I tried to convince one of them that being made in God's image does not mean that God physically looks like us. I enjoyed it, and even though we didn't get through what I had planned for today, I was cool with it because I've got like 8 weeks to go- so we can just do it next week!

At the Boy's Ranch I finally figured out a plan for what to do with Chishala, Kellys, and Felix. I've finished my book on counseling for drug addiction (which, although it was written for professional counselors, was still quite interesting) and am ready to start a Bible study with them specifically designed for people with "life controlling problems". We're going to do that all together, and with no interpreter! They were pretty stoked about that, I think because then they won't have to worry about their leaders being there keeping an eye on them. On top of that I'll be meeting with them individually to talk about a whole host of things: business ideas, where they'll live when they leave, what they're struggling with right now, how to stay off the streets, what kind of a life they want to live, who is God to them, what team are they rooting for in the Confederations Cup, etc... 

The goal of my interaction with these guys is to prepare them for when they leave, so I'm trying to let that guide me as I'm here. Ex: I'm wanting these guys to have a regular prayer life, so we're going to pray together 3 times a week. When none of them showed up the first day, I told each of them individually that I wasn't offended that they weren't there. That prayer time is not for me, I said, but for you. I know that I'm offering them some cool stuff, but I can't make them do it. They can take it or leave it, but I'm certain that if they do it they will benefit and if they don't they'll reap the consequences. I know that there won't be someone forcing them to pray, or plan ahead for their business, or whatever when they're gone, so I'm trying to get them used to becoming their own accountability. It's very freeing for me to know that it's not my responsibility to change them!

In other news, Karen's Uncle George and cousin Bryce have come and will be here till next weekend. AND BRYCE IS HILARIOUS!!! He and I are completely on the same page with our sarcasm and jokes, and it's just refreshing my socks off (it would be like if Desi came, but in the body of an unmarried 22-year old University of Arizona Wildcat). Uncle George is also pretty chill and fun to talk to, and I'm really enjoying my time with each of them. 

Did you know that Emeralds and other such precious stones are fairly cheap in Zambia? I was unaware. Anyone want anything (not a diamond, please, as here they are almost certainly conflict-related)? Just let me know and I'll try to find it, quote you a price, and I can take it back for you! 

   I also harvested sweet potatoes this week, which was pretty cool. 

My girlfriend is amazing. 

This is the latest blog post from Nick!

Kenyans can carry just about anything on the back of a bycicle. This guy's got talents I only hope to achieve one day.

John and I got to see Micah and Betsy again! They invited us to a 1010 Project meeting. It was a networking event and allowed me to see a bunch of white people like me and for John to connect with some other Kenyans running orphanages.





Micah also introduced us to Adam, the Executive Director of 10:10 Project who's 26 years old and also to the Kenyan Director, Fred who is involved with three other NGO's here in Kenya. One of the coolest things about the 10:10 Project is that their strategy and methodology for helping struggling organizations is very similar to what Mark and I are doing with AMCC. They're big fans of not just giving money for expendable needs, but rather to start income-generating projects.



It turns out that Fred and John are actually old preachin buddies! They used to live in the same town and preach alongside each other. Fred and Adam invited us back to Fred's house where we talked about how we can partner! This was very exciting stuff. We're hoping to recieve a grant from 10:10 for the chicken project to help with some of the funding in September. Currently the biggest grant that 10:10 has given is around $7,000. For our project, we're going to need about $15,000 overall, so we're hoping and praying that 10:10 can help us with about half the cost. There's no gauruntee though.



John's still hard at work with the avacodo business. Here's a pic of him with his game-face on. The business is getting more and more competitive as the season is comming to a close in about 6 weeks. We're having to go further and further to load the truck. We've reached the Mungiki territory in one direction, which means really bad news. They're like the Organized Kenyan Gang. They charge outsiders fees for any type of work. When people refuse, cars and farms are set on fire and occasionally people are murdered. So we're gonna have to fill our truck elsewhere.
Yesterday was a visiting day for the parents. It was a great time for the kids to get to see their parents or grandparents (those that have them). Most of the guardians brought fruit or greens or soap or some other necessity. It was quite a blessing to get to eat ugali and kales rather than getheri (maize and beans) last night. Even this morning they all got to take chai (tea with milk and sugar) because one parent brought milk. What a treat for the kids. John and Nancy also sat down with each guardian and discussed issues with their children and how they were doing at AMCC and in school.



Unfortunately, ....or fortunately..., one of the older girls told her mom she wouldn't let her leave without her coming along. Rosemary was saying that she didn't like it at AMCC. Her mom, who makes about a dollar a day, will have a hard time supporting Rosemary. Most likely she won't be able to go to school and will have to go for casual labor picking coffee or tea. Her mom asked her to tell the plain truth of what the problem was in from of John and Nancy. But Rosemary wouldn't say anything. Then her mom told her that she knows Rosemary is lieing about something because she wouldn't verbalize the problem in front of John and Nancy. So why would she leave?? I dunno know exactly. What I do know is that other kids have fought and screamed and cried to stay there instead of going back with their parents. My personal opinion is that Rosemary doesn't like being told what to do, i.e. pull water, saying "excuse me" before talking to her superiors, helping to clean her room with the other girls, etc... She is a bit older so maybe she thinks she can have a better life elsewhere. I hope she doesn't become uneducated and/or pregnant! I pray that the Lord would go with her and grow her in Him.



Oh, I almost forgot! The Big News from last time! So there's a lady who lives down the road, Mrs. Wesley, who has recently been widowed. Her late husband would often frequent AMCC on Sundays and teach the kids about the Lord. The Wesley's daughter, Dorithy, lives in London and is very involved with her church there. She's heard much about AMCC and has known
John since she was a child.



She's really pushing to get her church involved and recently a lady has expressed interest in raising $20,000 for AMCC to buy land! I dunno how serious this woman is but I'm praying that the Lord would put it in her heart to do so. Having no land of their own is one of the primary problems that AMCC has currently. So please join with us in praying over this situation!



The last piece of Big News is that Maggie will be here tomorrow! I'm so excited I can't sit still. May the Lord be glorified in our time together here! Please pray that we would remember to seek first the Kingdom of God and that He would use us to encourage one another in our walks with Him. I'm praising God because He has given us this opportunity to serve Him alongside one another. Whoo hoo!
posted by nick at 2:39 am 0 comments

The lovely Teacher Nancy. I know most of you girls are jealouse you can't make your hair look like this on a daily basis. We call this "bush hair", as in "Some of those in Africa live 'in the bush'".

John's still workin on the avacodo business. We've made a 12,000Ksh profit so far! We're still waiting to collect the 5 grand that one of the workers ran off with, but the police are on the trail and we're still prayin. Nonetheless, John was actually able to pay the rent for AMCC this month!!!! Bwana asufiwe! (Praise God) He's also paid for medical bills for two of the kids and for Nancy to get one of her teeth pulled (ouch!) So AMCC is on their way! We even hoping to be able to collect money from various doners for more trucks and workers. John's feeling confident that AMCC can make some money for the future. He's also promised to put enough of the money into a "Deposit Only Account" so next year in May, they'll be able to do start right up again! This project is cemi-self-sustaining, because it only last for about 10 weeks. We're hoping we can go through the end of the year with the profits we'll make.

The Assistant Chief stopped by to give the kids a word of wisdom. Fortunately his office is next door to us, which allows AMCC to be a bit safer. I'm really thankful that John's got such a good relationship with him. This night he actually talked to the kids about sex! Talk about a surprise! I didn't know they talked about such things. Honestly though, he talked to the girls about not believing the lies of older boys. The week before, a freshman girl had dropped out of school, slept with a young man who told her that he owned what was actually his grandfather's estate, and had become pregnant. Now she's gonna have rough life and repeat the cycle of madness of her parents. He also encouraged the boys to stay in school and reminded them that there was a time for everything. He made sure they knew that school and marriage were for two different times.

John is becoming quite the barber. The first night he started, he shaved two and half kids' heads with the battery charged clippers before it went dead. The next night he shaved, he made it through 3 and a half, and this morning he did 5 kids! What a pro! These clippers are awesome by the way! Thank you guys sooo much for sending them! So far we're gonna save like 400Ksh! (haha, or rather not spend the 400Ksh we don't have)

Micah and Betsy came to K-ville (Kimata)! I can't tell you how pumped I was to invite them in to AMCC, not to mention John and Nancy. You know, Micah is the one who developed the AMCC official website. I haven't posted it yet cause it needs to be updated... I'm wanna wait to Micah has a chance to do so. We had a blast together even though it was for less than 36 hours. They are here working for the 1010 Project, who give small business grants to struggling Kenyan Christian organizations. So if you know of any, tell Micah and Betsy about it.;) It was truly a blessing to see some other Americans around who are dear to my heart! Thanks guys!

One last thing before I go. John was asked to be on the Red Cross committee for the Kadara region, which includes where AMCC is. So wherever Red Cross has potential to be involved, John is one of those on the chief decision-making team. Here's a picture a couple of those who were in charge during their training day. They took a 5-day training and crammed it into one! That's heavy stuff! I'm just glad to know that now John knows CPR.

There's some other really awesome things that God's got brewin for AMCC that have to do with some churches in another part of the world. BUT, unfortuntately I'm out of time today. So till then... Cheerio! ;)

Beginning of Zambia!

My first week in Zambia has come and gone and I must say that I’m glad to be here and I have a full time ahead of me. I live at the Nehemiah Boy’s Ranch, a home for former street boys run by the Sarah Rose Children’s Foundation, a Zambian non-profit strongly connected with the local church here, Church on the Rock. I sleep in the dorm with the boys, on the bottom bunk underneath Matthews, a middle schooler who has a chain and likes to wear sunglasses.
Most of the kids at the boy’s ranch seem like normal kids, and I’m frequently surprised when I hear pieces of their stories. You honestly wouldn’t know that they used to live on the streets just by seeing them or even talking with them at school or something. But oh man, their stories. One boy, who came to the Ranch last June, told me that he’d spent the five years leading up to his time here drunk. He’s 20 years old.
Its pretty peaceful there, and I don’t mind that. I go to bed by 9:30 most nights, and get to spend the early mornings by myself while the boys work on the garden beds that each of them are tending. Tomatoes, spinach, Chinese cabbage, whatever it is that they’re growing they get to sell and keep the profits, and I think that’s great! It helps them learn responsibility and money management, as well as providing a helpful ethic of work to be built into them. This is one of the main things that the boy’s need help with, learning to do honest work for a fair wage.
There is a “chapel” every morning, with a different leader at the Ranch doing a short (20 min?) time of teaching. Right now we’re going through 1st and 2nd Samuel, and it’s cool to hear the different perspectives that the Zambian Christians bring to these passages. At night I do the “devotion”, which is just me commenting on the passage from chapel. It’s pretty chill, and done through translation, and I enjoy having a time of being able to speak to all the boys,
Different boys have different schedules, but most of them are supposed to have a half day of school. However, the teachers in the gov’t schools here in Zambia have been on strike for the last 3 weeks, so the kids are just hanging out at the Ranch (Ironically, the students in Zambia have recently organized strikes against the teachers, who are themselves striking against their low pay from the gov’t… and justifiably so. Zambian Ministers of Parliament get paid more than American Senators!).
My time thus far has been a mixture of being at the Boy’s Ranch and hanging out at the Walker’s, which is also where Karen Hartman lives (she’s my girlfriend). I’ve been trying to learn the schedule and routine at the Ranch so I can get a good idea of when to be there and when I should go to do other things. I’ve struggled some with feeling guilty about hanging out with Karen, and would appreciate prayer for wisdom to know when that is okay. I don’t want to be the lame boyfriend who shrugs off his responsibilities to hang out with his girlfriend, but I know that spending time with Karen is important to having a healthy relationship. It’s also compounded by the pressure of us not having lived in the same place for more than 3.5 years.
On Saturdays and Sundays I’m free, so I’m not sure yet what those will look like. This week I went to a nearby town to visit one of Karen’s Zambian friends and get to know more about her life there. Two of the leaders at the Ranch (who are themselves former street boys and are a fantastic testimony to the fact that kids CAN successfully come off of the streets) play on a local men’s soccer team, so I’ll probably go to their home games most Sundays. It’s cool to watch, and makes me miss the cartilage in my right knee.

That’s all for now! Please pray for Kellys (19), Chishala (23), and Felix (20). They are going to be leaving the Ranch soon after I leave and my main responsibility is trying to help them get ready to live outside of the Ranch. They’ve still got relapse problems from their days on the streets, even though they’ve been at the Ranch for over a year now, and we’re not sure right now if they won’t go back to the streets when they’re on their own.

Please also continue to pray for AMCC! I’ll post Nick’s most recent post just above this one. The avocado business has officially begun and it is bringing in about $75 a week of profit! PRAISE GOD! The needs there are much more than $75 a week, though, so they’re still in financial straits, plus the fact that avocado season ends at the end of July, so after that they’ll again be without income. Oh God, help AMCC!

Rwanda & AMCC goodbyes

Blog, oh wow, do I have stories! I’ll try to go chronologically from my last post:


I left AMCC on Sunday, May 24th and boarded a bus that night that was bound for the Tanzanian town of Kahama. This trip took about 18 hours and was mostly uneventful, save that I got to see Baobab trees for my first time in Africa!
I told the staff on the bus that I was headed to Rwanda and they advised me about what to do and where to go after I alighted in Kahama. This dusty town was bigger than I expected it to be, but they still weren’t used to interacting with mzungus like me (they told me that I couldn’t go to the Rwandan border until tomorrow bc the bus didn’t leave until then, and it took my 5 minutes to explain that I didn’t mind taking the tightly packed matatu that left in 30 minutes). This 4 hour drive was mostly flat and boring (reminded me of my home in Texas) but the end had two exciting points:
- Big rolling hills
- -A small-scale, grassroots run gold mine.

I didn’t know it was a goldmine at first, but the small town of tarps and loose wooden structures corralled my curiosity and I asked my fellow passengers what this was. It was in the middle of a bunch of wilderness, and had it’s own counterpart make-shift town about 2 kilometers away from where they actually did the digging and panning. Neat b/c Tanzania has a lot of gold mine, but most of that money probably goes overseas or goes into gov’t pockets. I don’t know why this mine is open and going, but I thought it was neat. And I didn’t see any guns or shady stuff.
That night I slept in a $4 motel that my matatu drivers arranged for me, and got up the next morning to get to the border. There was some mutual confusion and I ended up getting a refund from my matatu and gave that to a motorcycle/scooter driver and he took me the 15 miles to the border- SO FUN! This part of Tanzania is beautiful, and the Rwandan border was just gorgeous! Cascading hills, a gushing flood-fueled waterfall, and stark and steep cliffs. This was the Rwanda I had heard about, and it exceeded my expectations in physical beauty. Basically the whole country is hilly, like BIG hills (reminded me of the hills around the Bay area, huge, tall, but with flat, rice-filled valleys between them). For having murdered 1/8th of it’s population 15 years ago the country looked pretty good. Honestly, the standard of living seemed higher than all of the other African nations that I have visited (especially in the rural areas). The main reason that I can find for this is that Rwanda’s current gov’t since the genocide hasn’t been incredibly corrupt! The MP’s (Senators, functionally) actually spend the money they are allotted on their constituencies and helpful development projects, instead of paying their friends to do nonexistent jobs, or just outright pocketing the money. I’m so thankful to see this happening! Especially in light of the recent UK M.P. scandals, this is encouraging to me.
When I got to Kigali, the capitol city, I set out to find an ATM so that I could get myself some Rwandan Francs… but I couldn’t find any. None.
Turns out, after talking with a few locals and a few non, that there is no such thing as an international ATM in Rwanda. Wow. This was the first country I’ve ever been to that hasn’t had one. Fiji, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mexico, Uganda, Poland, Ukraine, England, Tanzania, Kenya, Germany, Zambia, they ALL have them. Turns out that Visa isn’t quite everywhere I need to be.
BUT the Lord still rescued me. I already wrote this story, but it’s the “right-place-at-the-right-time”-ness of it was, I believe, inspired and directed by my Dad. I happened to be in the only building in all of Rwanda where someone can get USD$ from their Visa card, and met two other young American guys who had gone there to do JUST THAT. I was just passing through the lobby and had given up looking in this place when I saw these dudes and gave them a nod. Then I honestly felt an urge that said “Ask them what to do”. They told me, and I was shocked. It turned out to be incredibly easy from then (I used my visa to get US $, then took that $ to an exchange place and got Rwandan Francs for it). They also told me where to find the hotel that I had been planning on staying in (and which no Rwandan had heard of when I asked them).
I loved Rwanda. I wasn’t feel like I was an alien from another planet, and I also found the best chapati and chai that I’ve had so far! PLUS, I could stay out at night without fear of being mugged/destroyed!!! I didn’t realize it, but I love being able to walk around at night and having my days functionally end at 6 has been hard for me.
I met my compassion bro, he was cool and chill. Knew English really well, and wants to be a lawyer. Considering Rwanda’s history I think that’s great and encouraged him to continue on in it. He’s in his last year of high school now.
I also visited the Genocide Memorial in Kigali. Very good memorial about a very evil thing. It was also a museum on genocides in general, and had exhibits on the Holocaust, Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Germans in Angola (early 1900’s, I’d never heard of this), Armenians in early 1900’s (3 million killed by Ottoman gov’t in Turkey), Kosovo/Serbia/Bosnia. Pretty sobering to realize that they have effected people everywhere no matter their religion, race, or economic status. My visit to the actual “Hotel Rwanda” (real name: Hotel de Milles Collines) was non-eventful. It’s still a functioning 4-star hotel and I found no recognition of what happened there during the Genocide. Turns out the one used in the movie is in South Africa, this one was surprisingly small, and makes the 1,000 people saved there seem even more impressive.
Then I left Rwanda! I got to the border at night, crossed after the sun went down, and then slept in a little motel about 200 yds from the port of entry. The next morning I got up, took another motorcycle back to the closest real city from the border, and began my laborious journey back. Laborious because when I arrived in Kahama at 12:30 that day I was told that the bus to Nairobi leaves at 5:30… am. So I had to wait there all day, get another hotel, and leave the next morning. Not only that, but this bus arrived in Nairobi at 10:50 PM, so I had to get a hotel once again when I got there because Nairobi is too dangerous to move around at that time of night (Kenya in general, actually. There’s no public transport at that time).
I got up on Sunday morning, exactly one week after I had left, and went back to AMCC. Almost on schedule, something had gone wrong there, so I ended up meeting Nick at the hospital instead of at AMCC. Onesmus, the toughest boy there, had gotten sick again, and was having trouble breathing. This was his…. 6th episode like this in the last two weeks? We’ve taken him to the hospital 3-4 times and it’s still happening. PRETTY frustrating. Especially when the hospital doesn’t tell us what’s wrong with him b/c it’s just not done that way in this culture.
Anyway, I got to talk to Nancy for a while, and then took another motorcycle/scooter thing (“motorbike” is what they call them here) to AMCC to say bye to the kids there. I walked in, they swarmed me and yelled and stuff and were happier than I’ve seen them be about me. That was nice, and also hard b/c right after that I told them I was leaving that day and they all became, no joke, downcast. They stopped talking, and looked down, and so I lied to them and told them that I wasn’t going to leave that day, and in fact I’d never leave again… Just kidding! For real, saying goodbye there was hard, and the kids were a lot more expressive than I thought they’d be given the culture. I’m glad that I’m planning on going back, though I don’t know exactly when it will be… hopefully by the end of next summer.
Pretty crazy to think that I probably won’t even be there for such a long time again, though. There were so many great kids there, and I became more attached to them than I thought I would. They’re smart, and sincere, and do dumb things and hit each other sometimes, and I’m going to miss them a lot. I’m incredibly thankful for AMCC, and that God let me spend time there. I believe that I DID accomplish my tasks there (build relationship with the staff, help out in physical and non-monetary ways) and I’m so thankful for that, but it is hard leaving there and knowing that their problems aren’t all better and life for them is still a roller coaster of provision and lack. I will continue to care about and love them, and I’m going to continue to live in the in between of the kingdom of God, having my heart in different places and loving things that hurt and not yet what I long for them to be.